1. Field of the Invention
The invention encompasses IL-18-specific polypeptides capable of inhibiting IL-18, as well as therapeutic uses of IL-18 antagonists for modulating and/or blocking IL-18 activity.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,472,179 Stahl et al. describe cytokine traps capable of binding a cytokine to form a nonfunctional complex composed of two receptor components and a multimerizing component. Two interleukin-18 (IL-18) receptors are known, including IL-18Rα, also termed 2F1 (Pamet et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,731 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,918) or interleukin-1 receptor related protein 1 (IL-1 Rrp1) (Sims et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,589,764), and IL-18Rβ, also termed accessory protein-like (AcPL) (Sims et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,589,764). IL-18 binding proteins (IL-BPs) are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,605,280 (Novick et al.). An IL-18BP-Fc construct has been described (Faggioni et al. (2001) J. Immunology 167:5913-5920). Trypsin fragments of IL-18 Bpa have been described (WO 2004/101617 A1).